The present invention relates to building construction pieces of varying sizes, colors, and geometrical shapes, which can be releasably joined to one another in an unlimited number of ways through the use of double-sided hook tabs and display loop fabric to form varied and interesting structures. The present invention enables users such as young children to create an unlimited number of practical and whimsical structures such as furniture, make-believe animals, and play houses for educational and entertainment purposes. The invention may also be used by others, such as by retail merchants to display products.
The use of toy building blocks is known in the prior art. A patent to Brooks U.S. Pat. No. 5,458,522 shows toy building blocks for constructing toy buildings and the like and sets forth the history of the building block prior art.
Construction sets of all kinds have been developed in the prior art. Some of these kits have consisted of components which could be easily connected to one another to form larger structures, and can be disconnected. The present invention relies upon a significant modification of the hook-and-loop fastening system to provide greater adhesive strength, structured stability, ease of use, and interchangeability among construction pieces.
In the prior art, when the traditional hook-and-loop fastening system is employed to join modular construction pieces or accessories together, the hook-surfaced and loop-surfaced materials are, out of necessity, permanently affixed to the objects to be joined. See for example the prior art patents as listed:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,458,522 Title: FABRIC FASTENER BUILDING BLOCK Inventor: James A. Brooks, III Issued Date: Oct. 17, 1995
U.S. Pat. No. 4,710,145 Title: THERAPEUTIC DOLL FIGURE Inventor: Nancy Hall Vandis Issued Date: Dec. 1, 1987
U.S. Pat. No. 5,458,522 Title: FABRIC FASTENER BUILDING BLOCK Inventor: James A. Brooks, III Issued Date: Oct. 17, 1995
U.S. Pat. No. 5,348,510 Title: TOY WITH FANCIFUL INTRA-CHANGEABLE PARTS Inventor: Paul DuPont et al. Issued Date: Sep. 20, 1994
U.S. Pat. No. 5,322,465 Title: HAND PUPPET KIT Inventor: David P. McGill Issued Date: Jun. 21, 1994
U.S. Pat. No. 4,762,494 Title: PSYCHOTHERAPY DEVICE Inventor: Ruth E. Woods Issued Date: Aug. 9, 1988
U.S. Pat. No. 4,504,240 Title: HAND PUPPET WITH DETACHABLE FACIAL ELEMENTS Inventor: John J. Thomas Issued Date: Mar. 12, 1985
U.S. Pat. No. 4,722,712 Title: GEOMETRIC TOY Inventor: Katharine L. McKenna Issued Date: Feb. 2, 1988
U.S. Pat. No. 4,937,181 Title: EDUCATIONAL DISPLAY SYSTEM Inventor: John Rogers Issued Date: Jun. 26, 1990
U.S. Pat. No. 4,722,712 Title: GEOMETRIC TOY Inventor: Katharine L. McKenna Issued Date: Feb. 2, 1988
U.S. Pat. No. 4,964,832 Title: MODULAR PUPPET SYSTEM Inventor: Charles Bickoff Issued Date: Oct. 23, 1990
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 4,699,385 Title: CHESS PUZZLE BOARD AND PIECES Inventor: Bifulco Issued Date: Oct. 13, 1997
These patents show systems wherein the hook and loop material is permanently affixed to blocks or other modular pieces to releasably join the modular pieces together. Consequently, the user of the construction pieces has no discretion over where on the construction pieces to place the hook-surfaced and loop-surfaced fastening materials. Moreover, because the traditional hook and loop-surfaced materials are costly and unpleasant to the touch, manufacturers have limited the amount of hook-surfaced and loop-surfaced material affixed to the construction pieces or other objects to be joined. Manufacturers have placed the hook-surfaced and loop-surfaced materials only where it was guessed that connection between construction pieces was most likely to occur. Unfortunately, where there is no hook and loop material, the construction pieces cannot be joined together; the construction pieces can only be joined together where the fastening material is. Consequently, the number of possible construction piece configurations is limited.
The problem has been aggravated by the fact that the tabs and strips of fastening material must be located on the construction pieces such that when the two construction pieces are placed face to face, the tabs and strips of adhesive material must be of opposite types, one-hook-surfaces and one loop-surfaced. This requirement poses a problem because even if the manufacturer affixes the tabs or strips at the most likely points of attachment on the surfaces of the construction pieces, the manufacturer still must make an educated guess about which material to use where for the greatest number of successful matches between hook-surfaced or loop-surfaced tabs or strips. For the user, it can become frustrating to try to match up the hook-and loop materials when trying to join the construction pieces together.
To a limited extent, this particular problem can be mitigated by insuring that each construction piece has a combination of both hook-surfaced and loop-surfaced material at every likely point of contact such that at any place where two construction pieces touched, some hook-surfaced fabric would contact some loop-surfaced fabric. However, when this method has been used, the tabs and strips have taken on a checkerboard appearance, which is aesthetically not pleasing.
Another limitation is that because the tabs and strips or hook-surfaced and loop-surfaced material cannot be added to or removed from the construction pieces at the discretion of the user, the user cannot control the adhesive force between the construction pieces by varying the amount of hook-surfaced and loop surfaced material connecting the construction pieces together.
Another problem with permanently affixing the tabs or strips of hook and loop material to the construction pieces is that inevitably some of those tabs or strips are exposed to view on the finished structure, and they cannot be removed. Such exposed tabs or strips detract from the overall appearance of the structure formed. In addition, because the hook-surfaced material is somewhat stiff and unpleasant to the touch, permanently affixing the hook-surfaced and loop-surfaced material to the construction pieces causes the surfaces of the individual construction pieces and the finished structure to be unpleasant to the touch.
The present invention solves the above problems through the employment of double-sided hook-surfaced tabs in combination with geometrically-shaped, planar-faced construction pieces to form a superior building construction system.
Bickoff, U.S. Pat. No. 4,964,832, issued Oct. 23, 1990, shows puppets wherein body part extremities, facial features, accessories such as clothing are attached by hook and loop materials to primary body and head parts to form a xe2x80x9cstuffed toyxe2x80x9d, doll, puppet, or marionette.
The present invention essentially comprises a construction piece of any geometrical shape with planar faces having fabric fasteners secured thereto for releasably coupling the piece to another piece. Each construction piece may be hollow or solid, such as consisting of foam material. The construction piece of the present invention is covered at least partially with display loop fabric and is accompanied by independent double-sided hook-surfaced tabs which may be removably affixed to said fabric so as to permit the attachment of one construction piece to another. In an alternate embodiment of the present invention a reinforcement strip is connected to each of said construction pieces by double-sided hook-surfaced tabs wherein, at least one side of the reinforcement strip is covered with display loop fabric.
The present invention relates to a novel device comprising relatively large, light-weigh, soft building blocks of a variety of shapes, and various fastening devices which are also of a relatively large size, where both the blocks and the fastening devices are appropriate for use by small children and infants as well as other age groups, for a variety of purposes. More specifically, primarily the blocks are preferably of a size that permits and invites users to either sit upon, stand on, lie upon, jump on, or be supported by the blocks, or which contribute structurally to the building of structures which permit and invite such above use, or which contribute structurally to the building of structures which permit the user to pass through such a structure or sit under the structure. The blocks are also primarily of a size that encourages not only fine motor skills, but also gross motor skills in the course of manipulating or arranging one or more blocks. Blocks that encourage gross motor skills in the course of manipulating or arranging one or more blocks. Blocks that encourage gross motor skills have many benefits educationally, developmentally, recreationally, and also therapeutically; in addition to the standard uses of a construction set, it is envisioned that the blocks may be used by physical and occupational therapists to rehabilitate patients through the encouragement of gross motor activities in the manipulation one or more blocks. It is envisioned that some of the block dimensions will allow the blocks to be used as protective pads, such as on floors or sharp-corned furniture to guard children from injury. The tabs and strips are oversized to prevent ingesting and may have rounded edged to eliminate sharp corners which present a risk of injury. As explained, the blocks are constructed for durability and can be easily disassembled to wash or clean the outer cover. The blocks are preferably polygonal, flat surfaced elements which makes it easy for even toddlers to place double-sided hook tabs on the flat surfaces which have a large area and this facilitates assembly of large blocks to one another. Older children can place tabs more selectively across the juncture of blocks to made a more secure connection.
Each block is sized and proportioned to be highly versatile, providing the user with a great degree of discretion over the way in which each block can be arranged in relation to other blocks. To permit such versatility, the blocks are preferably within a particular range of dimensions. The blocks are also sized and proportioned keeping in mind the practical issues of storage by the user and manufacturing cost. Preferably, the blocks have a minimum surface and are dimensioned proportionately to each other to compatibly fit together in assemblies created from the blocks. For example, the width of the cube-type block is an even multiple widthwise relative to a flat elongated block so that three cubes can be fitted on the longest flat surface of the flat elongated block.